Team Spirit swept Gaimin Gladiators 3-0 in the grand final to win Dota 2’s The International on Sunday in Seattle.
Gaimin Gladiators climbed through the lower bracket to reach the grand final showdown with Spirit, having beaten Azure Ray and LGC Gaming in the lower-bracket semifinal and final earlier in the day.
But Spirit handled their business, beating GG in 33 minutes on red, 43 minutes on green and 42 minutes on red for the sweep.
The International annually has the largest prize pool in esports, with the amount rising throughout the competition based on in-game sales to the public. The prize pool for last year’s International began at $1.6 million but wound up at $18.9 million, with Tundra Esports claiming the $8.5 million first prize.
This year’s prize pool started at $1.6 million and is currently at $3.14 million.
All matches throughout the playoffs were best-of-three until the grand final, which was best-of-five.
On Sunday, Gaimin Gladiators kicked things off with a 2-0 win over Azure Ray in the lower-bracket semis, cleaning up in 22 minutes on red and 24 minutes on green. Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov of Russia posted an impressive 15-0-12 kills-deaths-assists ratio in the latter round for GG.
Against LGD Gaming in the lower-bracket final, GG prevailed in 51 minutes on red and 40 minutes on green. Quinn “Quinn” Callahan averaged a 9.5-1.0-8.0 K-D-A over the two maps for GG.
But come the final, Ukrainian Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk took over for Team Spirit, finishing with a 12.0-4.7-12.0 average K-D-A.
The International prize pool (percentage of total amounts going to each team)
1. 45 percent — Team Spirit
2. 12 percent — Gaimin Gladiators
3. 8 percent — LGD Gaming
4. 5.5 percent — Azure Ray
5-6. 3.25 percent — Team Liquid, BetBoom Team
7-8. 2.5 percent — nouns, Virtus.pro
9-12. 2 percent — TSM, 9Pandas, Talon Esports, Entity
13-16. 1.5 percent — Shopify Rebellion, Evil Geniuses, Keyd Stars, Tundra Esports
17-20. 1 percent — Team SMG, Thunder Awaken, beastcoast, PSG Quest
–Field Level Media